The Mummy
The Mummy is an adventure film released by Universal Pictures on May 7, 1999. Starring actors Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell, Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan, Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep, John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan, and Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bay, the film was written and directed by Stephen Sommers, and produced by Sean Daniel and James Jacks. The film was based loosely on a 1932 film of the same name, intended originally as part of a low-budget film series, turning into a blockbuster adventure film. The story is commenced in the year 1290 B.C, and continues into the 1920's. The film grossed USD $43 million in 3,210 theaters. The film went on to earn $415 million worldwide (Domestic: $155 million; Foreign: $260 million). Synopsis In ancient Egypt In the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, in the year 1290 B.C, Seti I rules as pharaoh. Residing in Thebes is also the High Priest of Osiris, Imhotep, who acts as advisor, counsel and friend to Seti, but who houses a secret: Imhotep harbours a secret love, Anck-Su-Namun, Seti's mistress. The two love one another more than life itself, but as long as Seti lives, they may never be together, leaving them with the plan of assassinating the pharaoh. As a precaution to ensure that Anck-Su-Namun stayed within Seti's rule, she is painted in several coats of golden body paint, which ensures that no other man might touch her, though the precaution is thrown out when Anck-Su-Namun comesclose to Imhotep as the two are in Anck-Su-Namun's residence and the they share a kiss, which ends in Imhotep smearing the paint on Anck-Su-Namun's left arm. At that moment, Seti, who has just come to Anck-Su-Namun's residence, is surprised to see Imhotep's priests at the residence, but is utterly infuriated when he sees Anck-Su-Namun with the paint on her arm smeared and Seti asks which man dared to touch her. At that moment, Imhotep comes from behind the pharaoh and is about to assassinate Seti with a dagger, but ceases as Anck-Su-Namun stabs Seti with another dagger, her lover joining in until Seti is killed. The Medjai, the pharaoh's elite guard, storm the residence, seeking whoever had committed the crime. The Medjai were too late to catch one of the real culprits as Imhotep leaves the scene at the request of Anck-Su-Namun, who states that only he could bring her back to life were something to happen. Upon discovering Seti's corpse and Anck-Su-Namun with a dagger, the guards watch as Anck-Su-Namun, feigning treachery, stabs herself with the dagger in her hand. Soon after, Imhotep and his priests race into the deserts to seek Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, where the wealth of kings and the resting place for pharaohs lays. Here Imhotep seekes out the black Book of the Dead so as to revive his love, and began to perform the spell that would bring her to life. But before the ritual can be completed, the Medjai, who had followed the priests as they headed to Hamanaptra, storm the chamber where the ritual is being performed. To commit an act such as bringing one back from the dead is blasphemy of the worst calibre, and so the priests are all condemned to death by being mummification while they were alive. Imhotep, having led them into their sin, is condemned to endure the Hom-Dai, a curse so powerful that it had never before been performed. The priest's tongue is ritualistically cut out, and he is bound tight in wrappings, placed in a sarcophagus which is filled with flesh-eating scarabs. As the scarabs eat Imhotep alive, the lid is placed over the sarcophagus, sealed with a key resembling a puzzle-box. The Medjai and their descendants vow from that time on to watch over the city's ruins so that none might find either Imhotep or the means to bring him back to life. Battle at Hamunaptra In 1923 A.D, years after the pharaohs of Egypt had fallen, the Medjai still exist, becoming a furtive secret society over the years with the same goal as they did centuries ago: to ensure that none find the ruins of Hamanaptra. One group of Medjai led by Ardeth Bay stand vigil over Hamunaptra, witnessing a garrison of the French Foreign Legion that have found the ruins, setting up their post within the crumbling walls. The Legionnaires in the garrison believed so much that Hamunaptra existed that they trekked across Libya into Egypt, and encountering a great army of Tuareg warriors at the site. Rick O'Connell, an American serving as corporal in the Legion, has been promoted once the leader of the garrison, Colonel Guizot, deserts the ruins on horseback, leaving his men on their own. O'Connell leads his fellow Legionnaires into successfully bringing down many Tuaregs, but as the battle wages on, the Tuaregs kill off more and more Legionnaires until only O'Connell himself and another Legionnaire, a man named Beni Gabor, survive. O'Connell blasts away many Tuaregs with his pistols, but finds himself outnumbered once his bullets run out. The Tuaregs chase him into a corner, but can't not fire, as their horses are frightened off by something within the sand; with this, the Tuaregs leave Hamunaptra, leaving O'Connell alone to face whatever is in the sand, until the movements in the sand drive him off as well. Running off into the desert, O'Connell notices a group of men on horseback watching him in the distance, Medjai, who decide not to kill him, as the desert would do that. Artifacts Three years after the battle at Hamunaptra, in the Cairo Museum of Antiquities, a young aspiring Egyptologist by the name of Evelyn Carnahan is given an artifact by her brother Jonathan Carnahan; the object is similar to a puzzle-box and clicks open to reveal eight different-shaped edges and a map made of papyrus. Evelyn and her brother show the item to the museum curator, Dr. Terence Bey, who dismisses the box and the map inside as nothing more than fakes. Upon examining the box, however, the three scholars learn that the box was actually the key to Hamunaptra, and that the map within must be real. The curator idly holds the map for a moment and inadvertently brushes the paper against a small candle on his desk. The map half-destroyed, the curator states that it was for the best, as men had sought after Hamunaptra for many years, and none had ever found it, with most never returning. Evelyn, however, is not as quick to defeat, and has her brother take her to the previous owner of the map: a former French Foreign Legion corporal named Rick O'Connell who had been pick-pocketed by Jonathan for the box, with the former officer being incarcerated in Cairo prison. Evelyn meets the man with interest, as he had been to the City of the Dead and come back alive, and although O'Connell is brash and impudent, he agrees to tell Evelyn how to reach the ruins, provided he is set free, sealing his words with a kiss. After a monetary debate with the warden of the prison, Gad Hassan, O'Connell is set free, so as to lead an expedition with the Carnahans to find the City of the Dead. Once at Giza Port, O'Connell meets with the Carnahan siblings and boards a riverboat with them that would take them all to the next point in their travels; this expedition joined by Warden Hassan, who demands to come along so as to protect his investment. Riverboat Once on the riverboat, O'Connell and his group meet other men seeking Hamunaptra: three American treasure hunters and their professorial consultant. The Americans make a wager with O'Connell that they would reach the City of the Dead first, which O'Connell sportingly accepts. Later that night, O'Connell tells Evelyn of his experience in the ruins, and that he comes armed because something resides in those ruins: evil. Evelyn, however, does not believe in curses and dismisses the notion of evil lying beneath the sands, hoping instead to find an ancient artifact known as the Book of Amun-Ra; O'Connell insisted that it is wise to be armed in case. Evelyn then asks him why he had kissed her back at the prison, with O'Connell responding that he was about to be hanged and that it seemed right at the time. At that, Evelyn leaves in a huff, leaving O'Connell alone until he meets up with another former Legionnaire: Beni Gabor, whose actions of cowering in the ruins had almost gotten O'Connell killed. Beni reveals that he is leading the Americans to Hamunaptra, but asks why O'Connell, who had never believed in Hamunaptra, is returning. When O'Connell reveals that it is because Evelyn had saved his life, Beni sarcastically jokes about it: O'Connell not appreciating the humour and subsequently tossing Beni overboard. That night, a number of Medjai come aboard looking for the puzzle box and the map that Evelyn owns. One Medjai has Evelyn at the point of a blade, which O'Connell sees and begins fighting against the assailants. O'Connell quickly begins shooting off many of the men, joined by the three Americans, but the Medjai have caused too much damage to the riverboat to remain aboard, compelling O'Connell and all others aboard to jump ship and swim to shore. The passengers all reach the riverbanks safely, but Beni and his employers succeed in obtaining the horses and camels from the boat, leaving O'Connell and his fellows to purchase their own rides at a Bedouin trading post the next morning. O'Connell points out derisively that Beni and his group stand on the wrong side of the river. Desert Journey The four riders travel through the desert to find Hamunaptra, until they reach a point in the Sahara where they encounter Beni and his employers, now with three dozen diggers in their midst. Both groups pause for a moment as the sun rises, then resume their journey, each group racing against the other to reach the city first. The group consisting of Evelyn, O'Connell, Jonathan, and the Warden win the race, reaching the ruins before the others do. Once camp is being set up, the Americans take the best areas to search for treasures to themselves, as the smaller group searches for openings to the chambers below. Underground Chambers Making their way to the underground chambers, the group headed by O'Connell searches through the tunnels for any areas in which to dig and find treasures. Reaching the base of the statue of Anubis, the four treasure hunters begin to hear strange sounds coming from around the statue; guns out in the open, they turn around to face the source of the sounds, coming instead face-to-face with the rival group, also armed. With both groups meeting in the same area, the argument over the right to dig at the statue base begins, ending with the Americans and their diggers winning the statue base; as Evelyn notices quietly that there is another chamber below, she surrenders the chamber to the larger group. Beginning to dig and pry at the stone ceilings, O'Connell, Evelyn and Jonathan believe that they can find the secret compartment that houses the Book of Amun-Ra, and take it while the Americans are all distracted. As they are working on the ceilings, the Warden separates himself from the rest of the group, making his way through a passageway where he finds an elaborate mural on the wall. On the mural are several shiny stones, which the Warden identifies as precious and begins to pry off the walls with a knife. Meanwhile, in the chamber above, one of the Americans, a man named Henderson is about to pry open the compartment at the statue base of Anubis in the hopes of finding treasure before he is stopped by the Egyptologist Dr. Allen Chamberlain, who informs him that that the Pharaoh was no fool to make his valuables so easily obtained, and so advises the treasure seekers to have the diggers open the compartment instead. Three diggers step forward and began to pry at the compartment as the Egyptologist urges them on, pushing harder and harder until a torrent of salt acid shoots out at the three diggers, killing them. After some time has passed, Jonathan manages, by accident, to find a compartment where a sarcophagus is stored, releasing a large stone coffin. While the two others present stand in awe at this find, the Warden is still prying stones off the walls elsewhere, until one stone, having missed his bag and fallen onto the floor, cracks open, revealing a living scarab beetle, that tears open the Warden's shoe and eats its way up the Warden's skin to his head. The other three examined the sarcophagus that had fallen from the ceiling, and deduced that the puzzle box that had been the cause of the Medjai attack on the riverboat was the key to opening the sarcophagus. Putting the key's ends in place, the three treasure seekers at once understood how to open the sarcophagus, but the moment was cut short when screaming erupted from the tunnels outside. Guns out again, O'Connell and the Carnahans rushed out to find the Warden screaming and clawing at his head, running almost as if mad; pushing the others out of the way, the Warden ran shrieking into a stone wall, killing himself. Invasion and Aftermath That night, the treasure seekers' campsites were invaded by a group of Medjai, who came on horseback and killed off a number of diggers. The treasure seekers from both expeditions began firing their pistols at the warriors, taking down some of them, until O'Connell was confronted by the Medjai leader, Ardeth Bay, who had disarmed O'Connell of his gun before O'Connell rushed backward and lit a stick of dynamite, holding it out to show the Medjai chieftain that he would not give in so easily. The Medjai chieftain decided to call off his warriors, telling the expeditionaries present that they would shed no more blood, and told them that they must leave the ruins or die. Giving the expeditions one day to leave, the Medjai left the campsite, which caused some puzzlement among all the treasure seekers as to why a group of nomads would attack for no apparent reason. Making the decision to stay and to combine forces at night, the expeditionaries decided to move their tents to one area. After this happened, the relationship between Rick O'Connell and Evelyn Carnahan began to grow, as Evelyn, now loosened somewhat, told O'Connell of her family, and of her father, who was a famous explorer. As the librarian inched closer to the adventurer so as to kiss him, she passed out completely in a drunken state, having had some of the late Warden's whiskey. Findings The next morning, the treasure seekers of both expeditions had returned to the tunnels and chambers below: the Americans and their diggers returning to the compartment at the base of the statue, where they had extracted a wooden chest. As the three Americans stepped forward to pry the chest open, the Egyptologist informed them that the chest had a curse placed upon it. The Americans did not believe in the curse, although the Egyptologist warned them all of the curse that would ensue were they to open the chest. Regardless of the given consequences, the Americans proceeded to force open the chest, as their guide and their diggers ran off in fear. Meanwhile, the smaller group found another item: a mummy that was preserved inside of the sarcophagus that they had found earlier. The mummy had been buried alive and had managed to claw a message into the wall of his sarcophagus: "Death is only the beginning". That night, as both expeditions talked about their findings over a campfire, Evelyn noticed that the Egyptologist had found the Book of the Dead and was proceeding to pry it open with his hands, to no avail: without the key, Evelyn stated, the Book would remain locked. Awakening the Mummy Later, as all in the campsite were asleep, Evelyn stole the Book of the Dead from the Egyptologist's grip as he slept, and used the key to open the locks. Evelyn then opened the Book and began to read the words aloud, not knowing that below in the chambers where the mummy was found, the mummy was awakening. Dr. Chamberlain awoke screaming at Evelyn to not read from the Book, but the problems began, overshadowing the reading. A swarm of locusts flew out over the horizon, engulfing the camp and its residents entirely, as most of the expeditionaries ran into the underground passageways. The expeditions were separated: the three Americans ran down the corridors with a number of their diggers, but Burns, one of the three Americans, tripped and fell, losing his glasses. Unable to see where he was, Burns stumbled about the corridors blindly, seeing a fuzzy-looking figure at the end of the corridor, but unable to see who it was. The figure sneaked up from behind him and tore out his eyes and tongue as he screamed in terror. Meanwhile, the others throughout the ruins were besieged with the peril of running from man-eating scarab swarms. As O'Connell, Evelyn and Jonathan ran through one corridor, Evelyn was separated from the others and fell through a trapdoor in the wall. Evelyn had found herself in a dark chamber where she saw Burns, his back turned to her. As she leaned forward to speak to him, he turned around to reveal that his eyes and tongue had been torn out from his head. Evelyn was then caught by the culprit: the mummy that she and her fellows had found before had stood behind her with Burns' eyes and tongue in its skull: Imhotep. The mummy walked towards her, believing her to be Anck-Su-Namun, and roared in anger when approached by O'Connell, Jonathan and the two Americans. O'Connell roared back in mock gesture and blasted Imhotep in two with his elephant gun, allowing the expeditionaries to escape. The expeditionaries were then found and surrounded by armed Medjai who had already taken Dr. Chamberlain hostage; their leader, Ardeth Bay, explained that because they did not leave, they had brought forth an ancient suppressed evil that had been feared by the Medjai for over three thousand years, and Ardeth Bay informed O'Connell, who had shot the mummy, that mortal weapons could not kill the creature as he was not of the mortal world. Two Medjai warriors then brought Burns forward, who had, according to Ardeth, been saved by the Medjai and was lucky to survive before the creature could finish his work. Commanding them all to leave, Ardeth declared that his fellow warriors would go on the hunt and try to find the means to kill the mummy, for the creature was the bringer of death, never resting until his curse overtook the whole of the Earth. Meanwhile, Beni, who had been separated from the rest of the group, was fearfully wandering the catacombs and found himself face to face with the mummy; Beni tried to plead for his life with religious icons from different beliefs, but only the Star of David, the Hebrew symbol, appealed to Imhotep, who knew that it was the symbol of the former slaves. Imhotep declared that he had use for Beni, and that in exchange for his servitude, he would be rewarded greatly. Return to Cairo The surviving expeditionaries and diggers returned to Cairo after their experiences in the desert and resided in Fort Brydon, the British military outpost within Cairo. In Fort Brydon, Evelyn began packing her trunk with clothes so as to return to Hamunaptra, but O'Connell tried to persuade her to do otherwise Cast *Brendan Fraser … Richard O'Connell *Rachel Weisz … Evelyn Carnahan *John Hannah … Jonathan Carnahan *Arnold Vosloo … Imhotep *Kevin J. O'Connor … Beni Gabor *Oded Fehr … Ardeth Bay *Jonathan Hyde … Dr. Allen Chamberlin *Erick Avari … Dr. Terence Bey *Bernard Fox … Captain Winston Havelock *Stephen Dunham … Mr. Henderson *Corey Johnson … Mr. Daniels *Tuc Watkins … Mr. Burns *Omid Djalili … Warden Gad Hassan *Aharon Ipalé … Pharaoh Seti I *Patricia Velasquez … Anck-Su-Namun *Carl Chase … Hook *Mohammed Afifi … Hangman *Abderrahim El Aadili … Camel Trader Trivia * In the hanging scene at the Cairo Prison, Brendan Fraser really is struggling to breathe, and is actually being hanged. While shooting the scene the actor blacked out from the tight rope, and nearly died for real if not for the medics that came to his aid. * Joe Dante was originally attached to direct, and some of his ideas survived in the final movie, such as the scarab beetles. * Arnold Vosloo only agreed to the part of Imhotep if he could “play him absolutely straight.” * The role of Rick O’Connell had originally been offered to stars Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. None were either available or had no desire to accept the role. * The Ancient Egyptian dialogue in the first two Mummy films were "reconstructed" by Egyptologist Stuart Tyson Smith, who did the same for the science-fiction film Stargate. It is unknown how to speak and properly pronounce Egyptian dialect, since vowels were not written into hieroglyphics. * The antique biplane used for this film during the sandstorm sequence is the same that was used by Indiana Jones and his father Henry Jones Sr. to escape a Nazi dirigible in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. * In real life, there really are beetles indigenous to Egypt known as scarabs, but they are not flesh-eaters as portrayed in the film. They were actually considered holy and were worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians. Appearances All appearances are considered first appearances. For character appearances see the "Cast" section. Mentioned Characters * Ramses * Anubis * Howard Carnahan * Evelyn Carnahan's mother * God * Horus Creatures *Cleo *scarab *horse *camel *donkey Locations Egypt: * Fort Brydon *Hamunaptra * Thebes * Cairo ** Cairo prison ** Cairo Museum of Antiquities * Giza Artifacts * Book of the Dead * Book of Amun-Ra * Key (Puzzle Box) 1 (film order) 3 (chronological)